Publications

This study, conducted as part of the Women in Learning Leadership (WiLL) program under the Gender at the Centre Initiative (GCI) and UNICEF Innocenti, highlights the influence of women school principals on the educational environment.

The UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO) UNESCO-IIEP, under the WiLL partnership, has recently published a study examining the link between the school leadership gender and student performance in fourteen Francophone African countries using PASEC2019 data.

The ‘What Works in Pre-Primary Education Provision’ report is based on an evidence review of 56 studies from 29 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). It synthesizes the available evidence on pre-primary education interventions or programmes that aimed to improve access, in addition to learning and development outcomes for children aged three up to the start of primary school in LMICs. Moderating factors affecting the successful implementation of these programmes are also identified. Key recommendations to improve programme design and implementation at scale are provided across five areas: planning and budgeting, curriculum, workforce development, family and community engagement, and quality assurance. By addressing these recommendations, education stakeholders can strengthen pre-primary education provision and maximize its benefits for all children. 

Tra il 2014 e il 2020 più di 700.000 richiedenti asilo e migranti sono arrivati in Italia. Fornire competenze di lingua italiana a bambini con un background migratorio, come i bambini rifugiati e migranti, è riconosciuta come una priorità nazionale, in quanto è essenziale per garantire a questi bambini il diritto all’istruzione e per facilitare la loro inclusione e partecipazione nella società italiana.

Per rispondere a questa esigenza, la piattaforma per l’apprendimento digitale Akelius è stata introdotta a Bologna e Roma per l'apprendimento dell'italiano e dell'inglese nell'anno scolastico 2021/22. Questo rapporto presenta i risultati del primo anno di implementazione della piattaforma digitale Akelius in Italia. I risultati mostrano che l'uso della piattaforma digitale ha accelerato l'apprendimento autonomo, ha aumentato la motivazione degli studenti ed è stata particolarmente vantaggiosa per i bambini appena arrivati e per i bambini con disabilità. 

L’obiettivo del rapporto è costruire evidenze sull’efficacia della piattaforma digitale, oltre alle relative sfide e buone pratiche, in diversi contesti scolastici, in modo da informare i piani di scalabilità per l’apprendimento digitale in Italia e non solo.

Cash transfers are a type of social protection that help to reduce the effects of poverty. They are typically delivered in the form of cash or vouchers that beneficiaries can use for various expenses in the same way as earned income.

While cash-transfer programmes have shown positive effects on important first-order outcomes, such as food security, household consumption and education, there are limits to the effectiveness of cash transfers alone in addressing all development needs. Many interventions have had inconsistent or no impact on other important well-being outcomes, such as child nutrition, early marriage, health-seeking behaviour, and sexual and reproductive health.

In order to improve the effectiveness of social protection in addressing these multidimensional needs, cash transfers are modified to cash-plus interventions by combining them with additional elements, such as in-kind resources, behaviour change interventions and links to other social services.  SBC components of cash-plus interventions aim to address the drivers of behaviours that affect children’s well-being.

The aims of this rapid evidence assessment are:
• Assess the effectiveness of cash transfers combined with social and behaviour change (SBC) components to improve outcomes for children
• Identify which types of SBC are effective in improving outcomes
• Identify the contextual factors that are necessary to successfully deliver cash-plus interventions with SBC components

In 2019, the President of the European Commission announced the creation of the European Child Guarantee, an initiative that aimed to combat child poverty by making sure that every child who lives in poverty has access to free healthcare, free education, free childcare, decent housing and adequate nutrition. 

With Delivering the EU Child Guarantee: Practical lessons for effective interventions, UNICEF Innocenti provides a synthesis of findings of operational research on 15 pilot models of intervention for children and families in Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece and Italy. The goal of the report is to learn from the experiences in these four countries to inform the rollout of the Child Guarantee programme throughout Europe. The study provides lessons learned in three themes: laying the foundations for the Child Guarantee work at the national level; developing interventions at the local level; supporting the Child Guarantee at the EU level.

In Mauritania, many learners struggle with French, one of the official languages of instruction at school. This language barrier hinders student progress with the curriculum, increasing the chances of leaving school. This risk disproportionately affects adolescent girls due to discriminatory social norms undermining their continued education, even in urban areas of the capital, Nouakchott.
 
To address these challenges, UNICEF Mauritania, in collaboration with the Akelius Foundation and national partners, has initiated a blended course to improve French proficiency for girls in a disadvantaged neighbourhood of Nouakchott. The blended course, which takes place at a community-based facility during afternoons, integrates regular teaching with the offline use of the Akelius Digital Learning app. 

This research brief presents evidence on how the blended course supported vulnerable girls’ learning and other socio-emotional skills. It highlights lessons learnt for practitioners in implementing digital learning in resource-constrained environments, including the reliance on offline solutions and the co-design of digital content with the teachers. 

En Mauritanie, de nombreux élèves rencontrent des difficultés dans la maitrise du français, l'une des langues officielles d'enseignement à l'école. Cette barrière linguistique entrave la progression des élèves dans le programme, augmentant ainsi les risques d'abandon scolaire. Ce risque touche en particulier les adolescentes en raison de normes sociales discriminatoires qui compromettent la poursuite de leurs études, même dans des zones urbaines de la capitale, Nouakchott.

Pour relever ces défis, l'UNICEF, en collaboration avec la Fondation Akelius et des partenaires nationaux, a lancé un cours hybride visant à améliorer la maîtrise du français pour les filles vivant dans un quartier défavorisé de Nouakchott. Ce cours hybride, qui se déroule dans un centre communautaire l'après-midi, intègre un enseignement traditionnel avec l'utilisation hors ligne de l'application d’apprentissage digital Akelius.

Cette note de recherche présente les résultats que le cous hybride a contribué à atteindre en termes l'apprentissage et de compétences socio-émotionnelles. Elle met en lumière les enseignements tirés dans la mise en œuvre de l'apprentissage numérique dans des environnements aux ressources limitées, notamment en s'appuyant sur des solutions hors ligne et en concevant conjointement le contenu numérique avec les enseignants.

Niger has developed an Economic and Social Development Plan (PDES) aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular target 4.1 which aims, by 2030, to ensure that all girls and boys attend, on an equal footing, a full cycle of free, quality primary and secondary education, leading to truly useful learning.

What resources and contextual factors are associated with good school performances in Niger? By merging and analyzing existing administrative datasets in Niger, this report helps to identify positive deviant schools – those that outperform other schools despite sharing similar contexts and resources. 

Data Must Speak – a global initiative implemented since 2014 – aims to address the evidence gaps to mitigate the learning crisis using existing data. The DMS Positive Deviance research is co-created and co-implemented with Ministries of Education and key partners. DMS research relies on mixed methods and innovative approaches (i.e., positive deviance approach, behavioural sciences, implementation research and scaling science) to generate knowledge and practical lessons about ‘what works’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ to scale grassroots solutions for national policymakers and the broader international community of education stakeholders. 

DMS research is currently implemented in 14 countries: Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Madagascar, Mali, Nepal, Niger, the United Republic of Tanzania, Togo and Zambia. 

Mental Health in Displaced Child and Youth Populations: A Developmental and Family Systems Lens addresses the mental health of children who are displaced due to crises. Children who are displaced experience an array of adverse situations prior to, during and after their displacement that impact their well-being, health, adjustment and developmental trajectories. However, research remains limited with respect to understanding the impact of displacement on mental health and addressing the roles of children’s ecological contexts (in particular the family). In this working paper, the authors summarize the knowledge base of mental health in displaced populations from peer-reviewed journal articles with a focus on the last 10 years and using meta-analyses of mental health research. Based on this evidence (as well as gaps and limitations), we present a framework and recommendations for guiding future research.

‘Known from Birth: Generating and using evidence to strengthen birth registration systems in low- and middle-income countries’ is the evidence component of Strengthening Birth Registration Systems to Protect Every Child from Child Labour, a UNICEF project supported by the Government of Norway. The project focuses on implementing comprehensive programmes in Cote d’Ivoire, Mozambique and Nigeria to accelerate birth registration (BR) for all children – especially children from the most vulnerable communities – starting from birth.

This brief is an evidence gap map created as part of the Known from Birth project, which is producing a series of products developed collaboratively by UNICEF Innocenti and South Africa Centre for Evidence (SACE). These products examine birth registration and its critical importance for child protection. The project is supported by the Government of Norway and focuses on implementing comprehensive programmes in Cote d’Ivoire, Mozambique and Nigeria to accelerate birth registration for all children – especially children from the most vulnerable communities – starting from birth.

In 2021, Mexico introduced Pasaporte al Aprendizaje, a localized version of the Learning Passport digital learning platform, to mitigate learning loss after widespread school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Between October 2021 and February 2023, almost 100,000 students utilized it for upper-secondary courses.

The research explores the key design and implementation steps undertaken for the successful deployment and use of the Pasaporte al Aprendizaje. In addition, analysis of data from the digital learning platform shows that students assessment scores improved as they progressed through courses, in subjects such as mathematics, Spanish, chemistry and physics. The overall goal of this research is to inform improvements in the Pasaporte al Aprendizaje and provide key lessons learned for other countries implementing national digital learning programmes.